


Akiyama, always.

by M3zzaTh3M3z



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: M/M, Mystery, scorekeepers - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-27
Updated: 2016-03-27
Packaged: 2018-05-29 11:46:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,653
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6373513
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/M3zzaTh3M3z/pseuds/M3zzaTh3M3z





	Akiyama, always.

Monday morning, chill and damp with the promise of eventual rain hanging low over the couple of grey houses that made up the village. New stationary packed into a new satchel. Messy hair combed into order by a fussing mother, then freshly rumpled once safely out the door. Green fleece with the neck zipped up against the wind, stuffy blazer folded under one arm as black shoe shoes followed the described route to the bus stop. All parts of the first day at a new school in a new town for Yoshida Maikeru. 

Rounding the corner, Maikeru stopped when he couldn't see the bus stop where he'd been told it would be. It was just a crossroads at the edge of the town, squat buildings on one side, stretching fields on the other. Nobody was in sight, not even a single car rolled by. 

With a frown he considered his options. It wasn't long until the bus that would take him to his new school in the next town over would arrive, his house was on the other side of the village and although that wasn't very far away, he wasn't sure he could run there, get some clarification and run back without missing his ride. Anyway, he'd followed his mother's directions fine, this had to be the place. He took another look around, maybe he'd missed something. 

The crossroads was so small it didn't even need a traffic light or zebra crossing; the quietness of the village presumably made road safety almost a non-issue. Even so, there were a couple of wilting bouquets piled up on the pavement opposite, but Maikeru's eyes quickly skated over them, scanning across to the stray cat skulking around, the boy leafing through a book, the stop sign... 

Wait a second. What was that?

Slowly, Maikeru took another look along the garden walls opposite. It took him another try for his gaze to finally settle on the boy. The first two times his eyes somehow skipped over him. It was kinda like trying to look at one of those 3D picture books where the picture only materialises when you focus just to the side of it, or relax your gaze all together. But, like the pictures in those books, once Maikeru saw him, it was hard to understand how he could have thought the crossroads empty.

"Hey!" he called out, waving an arm. The boy didn't react, unless turning a page counted. "Hello?"

Maikeru frowned, the boy had to be able to hear him in the still, quiet morning, but he hadn't even flicked his eyes off his book. "Hey! I'm just tryna find out something!" he shouted, running across the road to the boy. 

Too late, he recognised the rumble of a farm truck speeding into town. His head turned in what felt like slow motion to see the vehicle bearing down on him, bored driver not watching the road, and he knew no matter how fast he moved he could not escape. The knowledge shocked like a plunge into icy water, chilling his limbs to lead, trying to backpedal was like swinging a spade through treacle, his thoughts were a mess of apologies and wishes, the brakes screeched too late and Maikeru scrunched up his eyes tight, afraid to meet his end head on and then wrenched them open again, determined not to spend his last moments in shame, just in time to see a blur of green as the boy shoved him out the way before disappearing under the still moving truck.

"Stupid kid!" yelled the driver out the window as he continued into town, but Maikeru ignored him as he scrambled to his feet, still panting, desperately searching for the mangled mess he knew he should find.

The tarmac was clean. No boy in green sprawled out, no seeping blood, no twisted limbs, no tattered book dropped to the pavement. Maikeru took a startled step backwards, before realising he was still in the middle of the road and rushing to the side, careful not to step on any part of the road he was sure the boy's body should be.

"You okay?" 

Even though he gave his best effort not to scream, Maikeru gave a strangled yelp. Somehow he'd failed to noticed that stood beside him on the pavement was the boy, smiling at him with big brown eyes, not a hair out a place and certainly giving no sign he had just thrown himself under a truck in Maikeru's place. 

Of course Maikeru knew he should thank him, or ask if he was okay, or at least answer his question. He'd even been planning to do one of those things, though he hadn't gotten as far as choosing which yet, but instead when he opened his mouth what came out was, "What the hell was that?" 

"You suddenly ran into the road. I pushed you out the way." 

"No, but like... I saw you go under. Under the truck!"

The boy shook his head. "I think you got a bit mixed up. I'm fine. Did you hit your head or something?"

Slowly, Maikeru put a hand to his scalp. He didn't feel like he'd hit it, but maybe he just wasn't feeling it yet? Was that even possible? He had no idea, but if so it was the only explanation he could understand. 

"Okay... Yeah..." He took a few deep breaths to calm down, then noticed something. "Hey, you're not even out of breath." 

The boy looked down at himself in what was almost surprise, then took an experimental deep breath in and out. "Yeah..." He gave a small laugh, and Maikeru tried to ignore the fact he hadn't seen him breath in again. "I guess I do a lot of sport."

"What sports do you like?" Maikeru asked before he could stop himself, suddenly excited at the prospect of having someone else in this backwater to hang out with.

"Volleyball," the boy replied immediately with a wide grin, but then faded a little. "I think..." he added, more to himself than anything.

Maikeru grinned back. "Awesome, me too. Are you in a team?" 

"Uh, kinda. I help keep score. At school..." 

Much as he loved talking about his favourite sport, the mention of school yanked Maikeru back to the reason he'd run out into the road in the first place. "Oh, right, hey, is this where the school bus stops?" 

"Yeah." The boy nodded and the slight smile that had for some reason disappeared when volleyball came up was back. "Though it's usually kinda late. Nobody ever thought it was worth marking since everyone knows where it stops."

Apart from confused newcomers clearly. Still, at least that was finally cleared up. "What school do you go to?"

The boy was quiet for a second before gesturing vaguely out of town. "Y'know, that one in the next town." 

"Karasuna High?" asked Maikeru after a second to remember the name of his new school.

"No... That doesn't sound right..." Oh, he hadn't known there were two high schools in town. The boy looked down at his clothes and then laughed again. "Oops, forgot I don't have my uniform on."

Had he been trying to read his blazer badge for his school's name? "Why aren't you in uniform anyway?"

"Volleyball tournament today," he replied automatically, then frowned slightly. "I'm... a scorekeeper today..."

Maikeru was about to reply, when the boy suddenly looked intently up the road. "That's your bus coming," he said, though when Maikeru turned to look he could see nothing. "I can hear it coming," the boy explained, picking up on the confusion.

Sure enough, the bus was soon approaching and Maikeru realised he still hadn't thanked the boy, nor did he know his name. "Thank you for uh, the truck thing," he said, probably not as enthusiastically as he should of, but thinking about it made his head begin to hurt. "I'm Yoshida Maikeru by the way."

"Nice to meet you, Yoshida-kun."

They stood in silence for another second under Maikeru said, "uh, what's your name?"

"My name?" he echoed, suddenly looking nervous. "Um... Akiyama." He looked away and blushed as though sharing some great secret. 

Maikeru waited, but no first name seemed forthcoming so instead he just smiled. "Okay, good to meet you too, Akiyama-kun," he replied. The bus was still crawling along the road towards them and he searched for something to say, before remembering something. "Is your book okay?"

"What book?"

"The book you were reading before the- you must have dropped it or something... But i don't see it on the ground..."

Akiyama shrugged off his rucksack and rooted around in it before pulling out the same slim volume he'd had earlier. "My book's in here," he said plainly. "Why would it be on the ground?"

Maikeru stared. There was no way he'd had time to put that away before leaping to the rescue and he certainly hadn't put it away afterwards. Was this another effect of the possible knocked head? But if so, how would he know what the book looked like... The thoughts rattled round Maikeru's head before they were cut short by Akiyama's voice. 

"Yoshida-kun, the bus." 

Maikeru started and realised the bus was just drawing in. "Thanks," he muttered, digging into his pocket for his new bus pass. The old bus looked ready to fall apart, the driver in not much better shape, so as he boarded all of Maikeru's attention was diverted onto trying not to make either fall apart. By the time he'd edged down the aisle far enough to find a seat not overpopulated by twelve year olds arguing over phones, Akiyama was already gone from his mind and as such, he didn't think to turn and see him waving goodbye from the pavement. 

Akiyama wasn't surprised. As far as he could tell, nobody though of him much at all.


End file.
